Recent news here.

December 22, 2004 - We celebrated today our traditional Annual Christmas Luncheon. This year, Italian cuisine. Last year it was traditional Castilian, and the previous one, Chinese.

December 14, 2004 - Another new member for the Eicosanoid Lab, Alberto Sánchez Guijo. He is a Research Technician of the Spanish Research Council, and will be working in the confocal microscopy facility.

December 2, 2004 - This was a long time coming. We open today a new section, called Schemes. As the name implies, this section houses miscellaneous material related with eicosanoid research.

November 17, 2004 - We welcome Dr. Silvia López Burillo as a new member of our lab. Silvia is a Professor of Biochemistry and Molecular Biology in the University of Valladolid, and an expert in oxidative metabolism.

November 15, 2004 - Today is St. Albert the Great's day, patron saint of chemists all over the world (or at least the Catholic world). Great day today to learn that our favorite toy is on its way home. More on this later.

October 23, 2004 - The people of the International Bibliographical Centre are, no doubt, persistent. After distinguishing Dr. Balsinde as an "International Health Professional of the Year 2004" (see July 16 entry below), they are naming him now a "Leading Health Professional of the World 2005". Thanks much, although we are not buying any commemorative item this time either. (Note added on Jan 18, 2005 - Due to a webmaster's mistake, the server ate out the only digital copy of the nomination letter, which used to be accessible from a link in this entry).

October 6-9, 2004 - The 2nd International Conference on Phospholipase A2 was held in Berlin, Germany. Our lab could not miss such an event. Only one pic, and not particularly good, sorry.

September 30, 2004 - Changes of personnel in the Eicosanoid Lab. On Sep 1, Mercedes Alonso, a Research Technician of the Spanish Research Council, joined the ranks. On an opposite note, Roberto Melero left the building. Personal life interests took precedence over his work in our lab. We wish him well in his future endeavors.

August 13, 2004 - The country is in the midst of its traditional August shutdown, when practically nothing gets done and nobody moves an unnecessary muscle. In spite of this, the Ministry of Education and Science has just announced the research projects to be funded for the period 2005-2008. Our lab has been treated nicely and most of what was applied for has been granted. Unfortunately however, funds for personnel have not been increased. This hurts our chances of hiring new people anytime soon, which is a real pity.

July 16, 2004 - A funny one. In a letter that arrived today, Dr. Balsinde was informed that the International Biographical Centre at Cambridge, England, had confirmed his nomination for the 'prestigious' International Health Professional of the Year 2004 Award. Not clear how serious this is, but it looked like fun to mention it here. Besides, they themselves style the award as "an impressive accolade" and "a justifiably deserved honour"...

July 15, 2004 - An interesting paper, pompously titled "The scientific impact of nations" appeared today in Nature (430: 311-316, 2004). In the article, the quantity and quality of science in the 31 countries that account for 98% of the world's highly cited papers is measured. Spain ranks eighth in number of papers published during the period 1997-2001, which seems like an excellent position. However, in terms of scientific impact of the research, Spain drops to twelfth and, if the results are normalized to take into account the average number of citations per paper, Spain is seventeenth. Not very good, methinks.

June 1, 2004 - Today we are happy to welcome Montse Duque as a new member of the Eicosanoid Lab. Montse is a Research Technician of the Spanish Research Council.

May 25, 2004 - As the old Spanish proverb says, there is not a two without a three. After 'only' seven months, Dr. María Balboa's full appointment to faculty has been made official today. Order (in Spanish) here.

April 27, 2004 - Another good one. By royal decree of April 17, the Ministry of Science and Technology has been suppressed. We now depend on the Ministry of Education and Science. Ain't this a great country or what?

April 15, 2004 - This is quite interesting. The Spanish Research Council has recently made public an employment offer that includes the creation of a research position in our institute, in the broad field of Cellular Physiology (Associate Professor rank, tenured) The position is not to be resolved by a local search committee, but rather at a national level, by a committee specifically designated to this effect. Dr. Jesús Balsinde has been selected for this committee as the Institute representative. This assures countless hours of fun for the coming months. For future reference, the full text of the order can be found here.

March 16, 2004 - With regard to the Madrid tragedy, we are grateful to those old friends and comrades of our San Diego days -some of whom we had not heard of in years- who have sent us messages of support: Andreu (currently in Barcelona, Spain), Yasu (Kobe, Japan), Ismael (Córdoba, Argentina), Kilian (Copenhagen, Denmark), Tina (still in San Diego), David (Durham, North Carolina), Bernardo (Toronto, Canada), Richard (also in Toronto, Canada).

March 12, 2004 - Yesterday, a terrorist attack on the city of Madrid, hometown of some of us, claimed the lives of two hundred people and injured over a thousand others. In remembrance of the victims of this senseless tragedy, a black ribbon is placed for a week on the front page of the site.

March 9, 2004 - An evaluation of the research achievements and general performance of our lab was conducted today in Madrid by people of the Ministry of Science and Technology. This institution provides a significant portion of our research funds.

February 29, 2004 - By popular demand, a page containing the most relevant articles (and .pdf links) published prior to the foundation of the Eicosanoid Lab has been created. The page can also be accessed from a link on the bottom of the Publications page.

January 14, 2004 - Did you ever wonder how the Eicosanoid Lab looked like? Quench your curiosity by looking at these pics (not of very good quality, pardon us).

2003

November 21, 2003 - A little bit of extra exposure is always welcome. Our latest paper has made it into the cover of the Nov 28 issue of the Journal of Biological Chemistry.

November 14, 2003 - Another great day for our lab. Yolanda has had a baby boy, Adrián! He weighed in at 3.55 kg. His arrival was at 2:25 PM. Adrián is Eicosanoid Lab Baby #2. Baby #1 was Sofía Balsinde, born on June 4, 2001.

November 5, 2003 - Today is a great day for our lab. Dr. María Balboa has been given tenure. She will be now an Associate Professor of the Spanish Research Council. Congratulations María!

October 17, 2003 - Find here a brief account of the history of the Eicosanoid Laboratory, from the humble beginnings to June 20, 2003, when this news section was opened.

September 7-10, 2003 - People from our lab attended the 8th International Conference on Eicosanoids held at Chicago, IL, U.S.A. Some pics of the event can be found here.

June 20, 2003 - On this day in age, the Eicosanoid Laboratory Web Page goes through yet another facelift. Since its inception in March 2002 this is the fourth major change of appearance the site has endured. How long til the next overhaul?..